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DISNEY IN DEUTSCHLAND – DRAMA PLAY ABOUT HITLER + WALT DISNEY

In August, 1935, Walt Disney and his wife Lillian were invited by the League of Nations (in Paris) to receive a prize for the international popularity of Mickey Mouse. As this was Walt’s first holiday in years, he suggested they make it a tour of Europe. The well-known animator was invited by dignitaries of all sorts, including Mussolini. The Volkische Beobachter, the official newspaper in the new Nazi Germany, welcomed Disney as ‘a hero against the Jews of Hollywood,’ and it is recorded that he met with Hitler in Munich. What they said at their meeting, and precisely where it happened, is still unclear, but Disney was known to have admired Hitler back in the US, even attending bund rallies in support of the Nazis. (See DISNEY’S WORLD by Leonard Mosley, and other sources). Disney also expressed antipathy toward the growing union movements in the Hollywood studios, calling them a Jewish conspiracy. And indeed, in 1938, Disney invited Nazi filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl to Hollywood, where her visit was roundly boycotted by other studio heads.

The Neutschwanstein Castle (referred to in the play) was designed by Ludwig of Bavaria in the 1860s, to celebrate the music dramas of Richard Wagner. This castle’s design is remarkably similar to the Sleeping Beauty castle used in most Disney theme parks to this day; and it was one of the Fuhrer’s favourite places. ‘Disney in Deutschland’ is a full length one act biography based on these very events. Warning: Because of the nature of the play about Hitler and Walt Disney, the characters it contains do make some anti Semitic remarks and references, which may offend sensitive readers.

Author: John Powers

Genre: Biography, Drama play about Hitler

Type: Full Length One Act Play

Length: 1.5 -2 hours

Suitable for: All ages

Ages of actors: 30’s to late 40’s, thirty to late forties

Number of actors: Six, 6 4M, 2F

Set: Simple – long elegant table upstage centre, projection of the Alps upstage through the windows and a model of ‘The New Germania’ – the new capital of the Third Reich they were designing in the foreground.